Level 2 OCA Documentary coursework

Research / Ideas for Assignment 5

Three photographers with conceptually different approaches who have each documented their deceased relatives belongings and clothes. All are wonderful memento mori’s to otherwise unremarkable people , whose existence is immortalised through photography.

Inheritance
Following her grandfathers death Andrea Tese had the task of clearing his family home . A home he had shared with her grandmother who died some years previously .Tese’s photographic tribute here to her grandfather despite initially appearing to be shot in quite a dispassionate style is actually very poignant. Her grandparent’s possessions , the mundane flotsam that people collect over a lifetime , items of clothing , shoes and photographs of Tese as a child pay homage to their memory.

The Power of Possessions
When photographer Carol Hudson’s husband died suddenly she was left with his humble possessions , worthless items yet capable of conjuring up his memory. Unlike Tese’s colour images shot within and around her grandparent’s home these are highly detailed black and white photographs with a plain black background. Aesthetically I like these very much , with not other distractions the eye is drawn immediately to the objects photographed , see here . I use a black background a lot myself (see 2nd assignment here ) but am undecided yet whether to try something different for this assignment .

Dad’s Clothes
Photographer André Penteado’s self-portraits here are all shot in a studio against a plain grey background. It must be very hard to come to terms with a suicide , guilt , anger and pain are all understandable emotions that the bereaved go through. Yet wearing his deceased father’s clothes (who committed suicide) Penteado found a way to touch his father one more time , a final goodbye.